TeamTIB 2017 – York Timbers Enduro
The 5th edition of the York timber enduro was another huge success in the small town of Sabie. The event is like no other on the south African mtb calendar and incorporates the best aspects of mountain biking into 4 days of trails and fun. York Timbers is a JSE listed company based in Sabie town and employs over 5000 individuals across the country. The enduro event showcases the area and brings much needed revenue to the town during the event, besides the direct impact of the event a legacy of the development and 500 Qubeka bikes is another positive felt across the board.
The format of the event is similar to a PRO-AM in the golfing world where 30 professional mountain bikers are teamed up with 30 invited corporate teams of amateurs. Points and times are allocated to each team over the 4 days with the major focus being placed on team work and the accumulated time of each member of the team is tally’d up. The timed stages were:
13 x Enduro stages
1 x XCO race (1 hr)
1 x time trial stage (8.5km)
2 x DH runs
1 x Short course XCO relay
1 x Dual Eliminator
My team was one of the most experienced in that we had Mannie Haymans, Erica Green, Vincent Durand and Sean Badenhorst. All of whom are legends in there own right in the MTB industry. This really made my weekend super enjoyably and we finished 6th overall whilst have a lot of fun along the way.
The focus of the event was all about teamwork and having fun doing what we enjoy most “riding our bikes” and I’m really happy to have been part of it all.
Words by Andrew Hil
Photo’s neilkleb.co.za
